Activist on behalf of the Downwinders
The story of Tina Cordova, who founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium with Fred Tyler in 2005.
By Joshua Wheeler and Reto Sterchi (Photo), 16.10.2021
Die Republik ist ein digitales Magazin für Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Kultur – finanziert von seinen Leserinnen. Es ist komplett werbefrei und unabhängig. Überzeugen Sie sich selber: Lesen Sie 21 Tage lang kostenlos und unverbindlich Probe:
Tina’s father, Anastacio, was 4 years old when the bomb went off 40 miles from his home in Tularosa. After bouts with prostate and tongue cancer, he eventually died when the cancer spread to his neck at the age of 71. Tina’s mother, Rosalie, also battled mouth cancer.
Tina was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was 39. These illnesses and nearly a dozen other cancer diagnoses in her extended family suggested they had suffered the same consequences from fallout as other Americans who lived near atomic weapons testing sites in Nevada and Utah. However, no one was talking about fallout in New Mexico. As a result, Tina founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium with Fred Tyler in 2005. As a leader of this group, Tina has testified before Congress, spoken to countless classrooms and townhalls, and been instrumental in changing the narrative around the fallout from the Trinity test. She’s now fighting to pass legislation to compensate victims of the nuclear weapons industry in New Mexico.